Two poses for today are Seated Heart Opener and Cat-Cow Pose
Seated Heart Opener and Cat-Cow Pose
Seated Heart Opener and Cat-Cow Pose can help you improve your posture and balance. Try these poses with Guided Yoga from YouVeda.
Seated Heart Opener Pose
This simple pose will open your chest and shoulders.
- Start with sitting on your heels,
- Lean back and put your palm flat on the floor about 8 inches behind you and your fingertips are pointing away
- Press your hands into the ground
- Lift your chest by arching your back and push your hips into your heels
- Lower your head behind you and increase the stretch
- Stay in this position for about five breaths and come back to the previous position.
Cat-Cow Yoga Pose
Cat-Cow Yoga Pose – Cat Pose is often paired with Cow Pose as a gentle warm-up sequence. When practiced together, the poses help to stretch the body and prepare it for other activities. The Cat-Cow Stretch (Chakravakasana) is a yoga essential and for good reason. It involves moving the spine from a rounded position (flexion) to an arched one (extension). Each movement is done in conjunction with either an inhalation or exhalation of the breath, making this a simple vinyasa (linking breath to movement).
Steps
You can perform Cat-Cow on an exercise mat or a carpeted floor.
Starting Position: All Fours
- Start on your hands and knees, aligning your wrists underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips.
- Think of the spine as a straight line connecting the shoulders to the hips. Try visualizing the line extending forward through the crown of the head and back through the tailbone. This is the position of a neutral spine.
- Keep the neck long by looking down and out.
Inhale and Arch
- Curl your toes under.
- Tilt your pelvis back so that your tailbone sticks up.
- Let this movement ripple from your tailbone up your spine so that your neck is the last thing to move.
- Your belly drops down, but keep your abdominal muscles hugging your spine by drawing your navel in.
- Take your gaze gently up toward the ceiling without cranking your neck.
Exhale and Round
- Release the tops of your feet to the floor.
- Tip your pelvis forward, tucking your tailbone. Again, let this action move up your spine. Your spine will naturally round.
- Draw your navel toward your spine.
- Drop your head.
- Take your gaze to your navel.
Repeat the Cat-Cow Stretch on each inhale and exhale, matching the movement to your breath.
Benefits
- Flexing and extending the spine can help improve circulation in the discs in your back. It’s a basic motion, but one that can be enormously beneficial in supporting the back and easing pain and maintaining a healthy spine, especially if you spend a lot of time sitting.
- Cat-Cow Stretch can help you improve your posture and balance. It is also believed to be a good stress-reliever and calming pose since you link the movements with your breathing.
